HUG Corner: Thought for the Week 7/16/18

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

To live in the religious spirit is not easy; the believer is continually on a deep sea 70,000 fathoms deep…it is a great thing floating on 70,000 fathoms of deep water and beyond all human aid to be happy: it is a little thing and not at all religious to swim in shallow water with a host of waders…No matter how long the religious man lies out there, it does not mean that little by little he will reach land again. He can become quieter, attain a sense of security, love jests and the merry mind. But to the last moment, he lies over 70,000 fathoms of water.

-Soren Kierkegaard

When we have lost a loved one, we are especially attuned to the world of the spirit. At the same time, there is a sense of being cut loose from our moorings. We are, figuratively speaking, “at sea”. 

Perhaps these words of Kierkegaard can help. We are, indeed, afloat over deep water, with all our questions about the meaning of life, the nature of death. We were never in control, though perhaps we thought we were.

Then, after a while, with our questions still spinning in our heads, we learn to trust the sea – that it is buoyant and will bear our weight.

I will rest back on the ocean of unknowing, trusting that I can ride its swells and its troughs without peril.